Imagine- John Lennon

Imagine there's no countries, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.

A world that is all one big country, called the world. All stereotypes of a certain country or religion are gone and we all live as individuals. There's nobody pointing out your skin color and treating you differently because of it. There's nobody hating you for your countries or religions history. There's no war for land ownership, and everyone is free to go where they please. Where we are all individuals, and able to accept each others individuality.

Imagine. All the people, living life in peace.

Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger.

A world where we are happy with what is around us, we are happy with just having the people that are with us, and having the earth beneath our feet. Where instead of asking for everything, we give everything we have to each other. A constant cycle of giving. Where when people receive gifts they are grateful, but then give it again to the next person. No one goes hungry because everyone is sharing what is needed. No one is asking to be given things, instead they are just sharing love and compassion with the people around them.

Imagine. All the people, sharing all the world.

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one.

Imagine...

The Medias Front Porch Looking In

Watch this video and think about a distinct feature it has, besides the music....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-HtiZcHUmE

Did you notice?

I did......

Why is it that in the majority of the media we see, the fictional couples and romantic pairs on T.V and in movies, are almost always of the same race and color? I'm not saying there is anything wrong with two people of the same race being in a relationship! But how come in the fictional media we rarely ever see a black person dating a white person, or an Asian person married to a white person. It always seems like the media makes the fictional romantic couples of the same race or colour.

For example in the music video you just watched called "My Front Porch Looking In" the song is about how this mans favorite picture is looking through the window of his porch and seeing his beautiful family.

In the music video we see different people looking in to see the person/people they love, aka 'the view they love the most...'. An Asian woman looks in and sees her Asian boyfriend somewhere in a busy city in Asia. A black woman looks in and sees her black husband and son standing in a park beside a basketball net (hello stereotypes!?). A white man looks in and sees his white love interest standing in a field of flowers!

Now I am sure that the country band Lonestar and the other creators of the music videos main focus and goal was not to have these stereotypical traits, and I am just using this video as an example of something that is very prominent in many aspects of the media (a totally different example of this stereotypical trait, is in Disney movies such as High School Musical.)

Coincidence? I think not.

Stereotypical? I think so.

The Profile Picture Disease

Flip through magazines, turn on the t.v, walk around in the city looking at billboards and advertisements. Its everywhere. You can't get away from it. We are bombarded with it. And its what teen girls are striving to be.

Most likely if you are a teenager of any gender, age, race etc, if you go on to your Facebook and look through your friends (specifically girls) profile pictures its clear to see that everyone is striving to have the same thing. Your profile picture on Facebook is one of the main things that defines you; one of the first things people see when they visit your profile, and boy do we know it. Teens, especially females, can take literally hundreds of photos of themselves, with the final goal of the 'perfect' profile picture, which must go through the whole editing process, with the strong hope to get lots of comments and numerous 'likes' . The Internet has basically given all of the resources to have your own personal 'me magazine' with websites such as http://www.picnik.com/, which is basically just an easy to use Photo Shop where girls can make their skin look perfectly toned, their faces look thinner, their eyes look brighter, get rid of acne, and basically change one single picture into something that barely resembles their real selves. I like to call this The Profile Picture Disease, some have it more intense then others but most girls are victim to it. How can something such as our profile picture on Facebook be so easy to fake? How can something that is supposed to define us and show who we really are be so easy to makeup this new person with no teenage acne and no neck fat? None of us are perfect, but for some reason we all love to make ourselves look perfect on Facebook. Don't we know that all the people we have as friends on Facebook that will view our Profile Picture have probably seen our flaws in person, and still seem to like us. So why do we try and have this perfect still frame of ourselves?

I wonder what Facebook would look like without websites such as Picnik, and special camera settings and makeup .....would Facebook just be a huge crowd of very ugly people?
or real people?
You decide.
Could you put up a picture with zero makeup, zero editing........just the real you........*GASP*

R.O.B.O.T.S

I wonder how learning would change if classes in schools were taught by robots. I suppose in some ways certain classes are already taught by computers and smart boards, which you could call a form of robots. I wonder if years from now we will even need teachers anymore, or will society be so technologically advanced that we could all just go to school through this technology, causing us to become virtually unsociable, causing us to basically become robots ourselves. Or maybe the definition of being social will change from being 'online' or 'available'. These are very extreme ideas, but with the way we are living now... it wouldn't be surprising. Everyday technology advances, and every minute a baby is born into the world.

I hope that the high school students of tomorrow will have the same resources we have now for education, probably even more resources, but that they will learn to use them in more useful ways. When i watched the 'A Vision Of Students Today' video, I was shocked at the realizations that occurred with me when i saw some of the signs the students held up. 'I buy hundred dollar text books that I never open.' and 'I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, 1281 facebook profiles.' both of these parts of the video came as huge shocks to me. Students have not learned any value or respect of money. The fact that we can buy these huge expensive textbooks that have all of this information that we could absorb, but instead we just shove them on a shelf which is ridiculous when we can read 2300 web pages and 1281 facebook profiles which are probably not going to give us the education to achieve the career we want. Is it because we are just lazy? Technology has made life so easy for us that, we take this technology for granted and do not use it for its original useful purposes. I hope that the students of tomorrow will be taught to use technology in a way that will help their education and help them to complete tasks and find out new useful information, instead of using it to fulfill boredom and to distract us from what really matters. Don't get me wrong. The new ways of communication and creating a community over the internet are amazing and are so helpful to stay connected and spread important information.... but when you look back on your life do you really want a facebook status to be the only thing that defines you?

Nachos and Salsa

An average audience of 106.5 million viewers tuned in to sit back relax and watch the Super Bowl XLIV this year. Almost all of these viewers had a bowl of chips on their lap and a beer in their hands. The big question to the advertisers at the Super Bowl were, what are the brands in the viewers living rooms on Feb.1, 2010? These advertisers payed and average of $3 million for a 30 second commercial spot. Some viewers may stay in the room watch the commercials, have a few laughs, and never buy the product. Some viewers may go buy the product at half time. Some may already have the product sitting on their coffee table. And some of the people tuning in for the Super Bowl will be using the three minutes of commercial breaks to go into their kitchen and grab a snack. $3 million is definitely way to much money to pay for a 30 second commercial about a beer or a bag of Doritos! The ads aren't just commercials, they have to be entertaining, funny, and connect with the Super Bowl and with the sports fans. With so many people tuning in, it is the ideal time for a lot of companies to advertise during. "If you bought one of every item advertised during this year's game that we could ascribe a dollar value, you'd pay $163,827.25, which is $6,329.65 more than if you bought similar items from companies that don't advertise during the Super Bowl." - says http://www.walletpop.com/blog/

Geri's Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7dcbIKvlw

The above is the Disney Pixar Short Film 'Geri's Game'. The video is just missing the beginning where it shows the title. It is one of my favorite short films, and was one of my favorite as a child. I think that this short film is especially easy and enjoyable for a child because there is no speaking yet you can still understand what is going on, and enjoy the humor. But the great thing about all of Pixar's short films is they are enjoyable to all audiences, parents/adults, children etc. I find that in all of Pixar's movies that have a short film leading up to the actual feature presentation, the short films always help you to settle in and get excited for the movie.

Really? Reality? Boring.

Society's point of view on reality is different from all angles. Some people watch shows such as Greys Anatomy, and then decide they want to become a Doctor. This is because of the appeal that the media plasters over the show; the money appeal, the love appeal, the sex appeal, the power appeal, not to mention all of the hot doctors that they would be surrounded by. When in reality if this person was to start the process of becoming an actual Doctor, there would be a big surprise involved... oh yeah, science.

Media has planned, constructed and polished a new version of reality, and the viewers have become so consumed in it that the actual reality has been lost beneath all of this 'appeal'. A bright shiny hospital, with lots of drama and gorgeous people is much more appealing to our society, then a hospital with ugly lighting, bad floral patterns and nerdy doctors. This is just one example of the creation of Media's Reality.